The Bad Boy's Forever (TBBG Series #3) NOW PUBLISHED

Chapter 18:Mom Popped More Pills Than A Washed Out Rockstar Judging Reality TV

Chapter Eighteen: Mom Popped More Pills Than A Washed Out Rockstar Judging Reality TV

Tessa

Sometimes life gives you signs that you shouldn't ignore. Remember how you had a bad dream one night and the next day found out that you'd forgotten to close the door properly and your dog escaped? Or that one time when you just knew you should have gone over the day's reading but didn't and the teacher gave a pop quiz in that very class that cost twenty-percent of your grade? There's a series of events that lead to that one unfortunate moment and the human mind is brilliant in how it is able to sense these things before it happens. I'm a huge believer in premonition and in trusting my gut which is why I'm completely bowled over when Cole hands me his iPad with an itinerary and tells me we're supposed to be flying home this weekend I push it back towards him as if the thing were soy milk tofu chocolate pudding. Yes, an abomination by that name truly exists and I tried as part of my health kick, suffice to say I will never be able to eat pudding again.

"What are you saying?" I curl up into a ball into a corner of the infamous couch and wrap the throw blanket around me tightly.

He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs like I'm being obtuse on purpose but I'm not, really. This just can't be happening, not before I set up a group video call with my parents and Cole's parents, you know when we were in different states and announced the fact that they were all about to be grandparents for the very first time. That's how I wanted to tell them, not showing up at their door during my dad's impromptu wedding to Danielle.

Yup, the man works fast.

"Your dad sent these in today and told me to let it be a surprise for you but given the situation." He's obviously talking about how I'm nearly cowering in fear of Cassandra' wrath and that going home seems just as appealing as getting into the bath with a shark, there's just going to be a lot spilt blood.

"How are there going to be two weddings in this family in less than year when the only time someone brought up marriage at the dinner table was with the context of it being the most horrible thing that could ever happen to you? Shouldn't we O'Connell's be permanently scarred by just how miserable our parents were together? My dad nearly slept with all of Farrow Hills and mom popped has more pills than a washed out rockstar judging reality TV. We should be running to the opposite end of the spectrum from marriage but everyone's losing their minds, first my brother and now Dad? I might be struggling to breathe just a little.

"Shortcake, hey shortcake? Calm down, that's it. Just breathe for me, in and out, in and out."

I listen to his voice and let him talk me out of a panic attack. So maybe I'd been getting a little delirious there but who springs something like this on his only daughter? My dad is apparently having a small wedding at home this weekend, without the fuss and the frills and he wants me to be there, of course. I just wish he'd told me earlier so that I'd have time to prepare my speech for why I hadn't told him that I'm nearly fifteen weeks pregnant and definitely showing it.

I come from a small town, a rich town but definitely small in terms of population and in terms of opinions. There's going to be talk about the mayor's wayward daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock and brought shame to her family. I'm really not in the right headspace to listen to this crap but of course I'm going to have to go home.

"We're just going to go there for the ceremony, congratulate your dad, give him and Danielle our best and then come right back. There's not going to be any drama, do you hear me?"

"No drama? Cole, he's going to take one look at me and it's going to break his heart that I kept something so big from him. It's going to ruin his wedding weekend, nothing says congratulations dad like finding out your daughter's been pregnant for nearly five months and forgot to mention it to you. And Cassandra, oh my lord Cassandra. She's going to kill you for not saying anything when you went home last month and then she'll come after me because this is probably her worse nightmare." I feel a sense of panic start to build up but Cole seems oddly calm and self assured which is both angering and confusing me.